the day she slipped away
by autumnbreeze16
Summary: Her steady eyes burn out like a flame. Finnick/Annie.


the day she slipped away.  
**finnick** & **annie**

* * *

**author's note**: so i finally came around and finished the entire hunger games series in two weeks (which may not be that fast but it is for me). oh man, this OTP came around so fast it hit me in the face and knocked me off my feet and i knew immediately i wanted to write something for them. warning, it's probably not gonna be all that happy.

title is from _slipped away_ by avril lavigne

**disclaimer**: i own nothing.

* * *

_from one to ten, but not in that order._

(**two**)

He's twelve and she's ten and they like to spend their time at the beach and let their toes curl up in the sand [and just pretend that everything is fine].

"Are you okay?" she asks, her eyes flicking over to the boy whose eyes can match the sea. His eyes are fixed on some far point in the distance, but she knows he's listening to her.

"Why wouldn't I be?" He asks back [even though he just knows what she's talking about].

She narrows at eyes at him. "Tomorrow is Reaping Day." There is a pause. "And you're twelve."

He doesn't say anything at first [because there isn't anything for him to say], but he takes in a breath. "It'll be okay."

Annie just nods, looking away a little too fast so Finnick wouldn't see her eyes glazing over [because _she_ is afraid, but she'll never admit it]. "Alright Finnick."

The next day, Annie tries not to be too happy when another boy's name is called instead of Finnick's. There's a small feeling of guilt that nags in that back of her head, though, because she'll get to spend another year with Finnick at the ocean while two families mourn the possibility that their son or daughter might not make it back from the Hunger Games.

(**five**)

When he's seventeen and she's fifteen, he wakes up screaming about death and tritons and other tributes whose blood is still on his hands. Sometimes, he wakes up alone in his room in the Victor's Village and shakily avoids sleep for the rest of the night. But sometimes, he wakes up to see Annie's face with her brown eyes flickering with concern.

There are so many words in just a simple stare before his world starts crashing down and he has nothing else to do but cry. Cry and shake and cry some more [because he isn't the lucky one who survived the Hunger Games; those who get killed are the lucky ones].

And after they sit on his bed and hug for what seems like hours, he buries his face in her neck and whispers, "Will you stay?"

Annie can't say no, [and she doesn't want to], so she just mutters, "Of course," and lays next to him under the sheets. He follows, and wraps his arms around her frame taking in the warmth and the ressaurance and the protection [because he just can't live without her].

"I love you, Annie," He finally lets out into the silence.

"I love you too, Finnick."

(**three**)

At fourteen and twelve, all he feels is dread [since there was a small part of him that knew one year this would happen].

"And the male tribute is... Finnick Odair!"

Trying to hold his breath, he walks up on the stage next to a girl [who luckily isn't Annie Cresta]. But he sees Annie out in the audience with a panicked look in her eyes.

"You have to win, Finnick," she demands the second she enters the room.

He raises an eyebrow at her. "Annie..." He wants to protest, [since he doesn't think he can win].

"Promise me."

"Annie—"

"Promise."

There is a fiery look in her eyes that just needs some sign that he'll be okay and he'll return safely back to her. But there is a part of Finnick that doesn't like to make promises he knows he can't keep [but there's another part of him that just wants Annie to stop looking like she's about to burst into tears any second]. So he just wraps his arms around her and hugs her so tightly, neither of them can speak.

But when he rides off in the train next to the girl who isn't Annie Cresta, he quietly whispers, "I promise."

(**seven**)

When she's seventeen years old, a knife flies out of nowhere and she looks down to find her partner's head laying next to her feet. He has a smile on his face, and his headless body is on the ground as well. She takes one long look at the boy before she screams and screams so loudly she falls onto the grassy floor of the arena and then after that she just keeps screaming.

Finnick watches with terror filling his eyes so quickly, as he watches the sanity wash right out of her. He's nineteen and his time is done [but it was never really done until she was finished too], so he can't do anything but watch helplessly as the burning steady flame of Annie Cresta flicker out like a candle.

He watches as she races through the forest with a mad look in her eyes, and he watches as she climbs a tree and just rocks back and forth with her hands covering her ears. He watches as the dam breaks and he's screaming [until his voice is hoarse]: "_SWIM ANNIE SCREAM_!" even though he knows she can't hear him.

She probably can't hear anyone anymore.

(**four**)

Finnick climbs off the District Four train when he's almost fifteen years old. But he looks so much older and his eyes look so much more tired. The crowd is screaming and yelling out his name as he scans the crowd, only really looking for one person.

"Finnick!" He hears distantly over all the other voices [it was amazing that even in a crowded place, he is able to pick up her sweetsweet voice].

"Annie!" He cries out when he can see her. She looks so perfect, and her eyes are bright with happiness as she tries to push her way through the swarms of people and make her way to Finnick.

Eventually, they reach each other, and he picks her up and swings her around because he did keep his promise. He's a little broken, but at least she can still hold him with the assurance that the Capital can't touch him anymore.

(**nine**)

He passes her while she's resting on the porch of her house in the Victor's Village, and she calls out, "Hello Finnick."

He turns to look at her, to take her in, but he just smiles and waves. "Hello Annie."

She smiles back, and he thinks this must be one of her better days. When she can actually smile a real smile and not rock back and forth with her hands cupping her ears, trying to block out a sound that lives in the one place she can't escape.

He's twenty-two and she's twenty, but he takes a seat next to her and wants so badly for him to be eighteen and for her to be sixteen again [because even though he had suffered with the Hunger Games, she hadn't and she was perfect and they were perfect together].

But now, he needs to make sure he doesn't touch her, for fear that if he does she'll go back to that wonderland that isn't so wonderful. The very thought makes his heart bleed, but he tries to mask that expression because Annie doesn't need to worry about him when she's still trying to get back to being herself.

(**six**)

She's seventeen and he's nineteen and the day has officially become The Worse Day In His Life, because everything happens so fast and suddenly he can't breath anymore [and he wants nothing more than to scream and scream].

"And the female tribute is... Annie Cresta!"

It's just a bad dream, he tries to tell himself, slapping himself and pinching his skin so tightly they leave marks that will probably take forever to heal. But the wound that has weaved itself into his heart is something that even time can't fix up. In that moment, he wants nothing more than to scream "I volunteer!" but he's a male and his time is done.

Annie is up there on the stage already, her face is so calm but her eyes are stormy and she looks scared.

When he goes up to visit her, he just hugs her so tightly and doesn't force her to promise him that she needs to win [because he knows Annie can't make promises to things she can't keep]. But she just hugs back, and he kisses her so hard it'll probably leave bruises and she kisses him back like she wants to freeze time.

At the entrance of a Peacekeeper, she shouts, "I'll win for you!" as he's leaving the room.

But before he could turn around to say, "I know you will," the Peacekeepers close the door and he loses that last image of her face [so he will never know if she was determined or scared].

(**eight**)

"Tell me a secret," he whispers into the faceless woman's neck, kissing her in such a way it makes her moan such a loud moan [that secretly annoys him].

"I—I really shouldn't, Finnick," the woman answers breathlessly, but she sounds like she just wants him to kiss her more until she yields. So he does just that.

"Tell me one, and I'll tell you one."

So she does. She talks and he hears exactly what he wants to hear. This is why he takes knowledge over money.

"Now tell me one," she whispers back, turning them over so he's below her. She had long yellow hair that makes a curtain around his face, so he can only see those brightbright blue eyes [but he wants green so badly].

"I love this girl," he starts slowly while the woman takes pleasure in nipping at his neck. "But she's mad." [ohsomad&crazy&just not the same]

(**one**)

Annie hugs her mother's leg and peers out at the crowds of laughing people. The wedding cake on the table is white and big, and Annie wonders if the cake tastes as good as it looks.

She looks around and stops when she sees a boy across the room staring at her with a pair of flickering green eyes. Her mother gently pushes her in the direction of the boy, telling Annie to go make some friends [even though that isn't Annie's strongest suit]. So instead she walks up to the wedding cake and peers up at it, trying to decide if it was worth stealing a piece or not.

"What's your name?" A boy's voice asks from next to her.

Unsure, Annie turns and blinks in surprise when she realizes it's the same boy from across the room. She nervously looks down and plays with the lace of her dress. "A... Annie," she lets out, her face turning red. She wills herself to look up at the boy. "What's your name?"

"Finnick," He answers proudly, grinning before looking at her as if she was supposed to shout out how cool his name was. But Annie doesn't do that, but she does smile at him not really sure why he wanted to talk to such a socially awkward girl like her in the first place. "Do you wanna go play out by the water?"

Annie finds that she can't reject his offer. And her mother had suggested that she make friends so why not? "Sure!" she answers brightly, letting him led her out to the beach. It is there they spend the rest of the bright afternoon collecting seashells, until he finds a rather pretty one that's a light shade of blue. He walks over to her and presses it into the palm of her hand.

When she gets home, she carefully makes a tiny hole in the shell and weaves it into a necklace that she promises never to take off.

(**ten**)

He's running down underground with Katniss and Gale and Peeta, with the sound of creatures who seek kill and prey are chasing after them. They're so close by, but Finnick's determined to return because he has someone to live for.

Unfortunately, determination can only take a person so far, because he's the last one up the letter that stops going up. He's trying so hard to make it to the top, but he can't because he knows the mutts are below him and are already clawing at his legs. He sees Katniss at the top, looking over at him with a panic in her eyes because she wants everyone to be safe [and the mockingjay is supposed to be the hero of this story].

When the mutt leaps up to bite his head off, his life flashes in fragmented memories behind his closed lids. He wants to yell at Katniss to tell Annie that he's sorry he couldn't keep that unspoken promise to her this time around, but he can only hear, "Nightlock, nightlock, nightlock" before everything goes black.

But this time, he doesn't wake up.


End file.
